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Joe Webb | CUT IT OUT

posted by Mel Luff February 3, 2016

British artist Joe Webb, is drawn to the ‘fuzziness’ of vintage imagery and the comforting warmth of their aesthetic. With a particular fondness of the fifties, he juxtaposes magazine cuttings and printed ephemera that he has collected from charity shops and book shops to make low fi, mixed media collages. Creating surreal, dream-like landscapes, using two or three images as a rule, he takes the original image out of context and reinvents it, delicately layering the hand cut images.His collages are simple, yet elegant, often carrying connotations of love, a sense of longing and contemplating our position as human beings in the wider universe. While some of his collages have a darker undertone, transmitting a strong social or political message.

Having been a graphic designer for several years, he now deliberately avoids the digital processes that we have become accustomed to, using images he feels are incompatible with contemporary technology.

“I started making these simple hand-made collages as a sort of Luddite reaction to working as a graphic artist on computers for many years. I like the limitations of collage…using found imagery and a pair of scissors, there are no Photoshop options to resize, adjust colours or undo.

My collages work to a basic rule of sourcing just two or three images… with these I can reinvent the original scene to communicate a new idea.

I suppose I’ve become fairly anti-technology… although I now promote my art on websites, own an iPhone and use Facebook…It’s confusing, I wish I had been born 100 years ago.”

CUT IT OUT is his latest solo show at Jealous, running from the 4^th to the 28^th February (details below).